


Big Brown Eyes

by xikra1648



Series: Big Brown Eyes [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Humor, Asperger Syndrome, F/M, Fluff, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Romance, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-05
Updated: 2016-08-04
Packaged: 2018-07-21 15:59:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7393996
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xikra1648/pseuds/xikra1648
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Katrina Hazel Pierce had always been...different, and she would probably still be an oddball without Aspergers.  That was just part of her personality, add in preferring solitude and computer programs to people and a completely eidetic memory and there was no way she would fit in anywhere but in S.H.I.E.L.D.  When S.H.I.E.L.D fell, Tony offered her a place among the Avengers, he figured if you can't beat them hire them, but she turned it down.  They weren't her crimes but she still felt responsible for all of the pain her father had caused, especially to a very specific soldier.</p><p>When he looked at Katrina, Bucky didn't see anything other than a pair of big brown eyes he would have fallen head over heels in love with in the old days, and there she was shifting awkwardly as she asked for his help.  He was...familiar with her social difficulties, he had been ordered to follow and protect her enough times to recognize the way she would duck down and avoid eye contact or order food online just so she wouldn't have to talk to somebody, or spend hours lost in her work.  He knew it was hard for her and when he looked at those big brown doe eyes he just couldn't say no.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I was diagnosed with Asperger's when I was in High School but I've never actually written about it, or made a character with it. They've all been smart but never got stuck with the downsides so this is my attempt at writing about it. The first chapter doesn't talk about much more than the social difficulties but there will be more in the later chapters.

# Chapter One

### Finding The Soldier

Over the years Katrina’s father had screwed over a lot of good people in the name of some twisted notion of peace. A lot of them could deal with being screwed, a lot of them even deserved it, but a lot of them didn’t. Most of them didn’t, in all honesty, and that was why she turned down Tony’s offer to join the Avengers, now that they were a private organization. They needed a hacker, a real hacker, and she could hack better than him-and he had an AI riding shotgun.

She turned it down, she couldn’t help the many victims of Hydra and Alexander Pierce if she was busy worrying about the Avengers, and she certainly couldn’t bother them with her little project. They had bigger things to worry about. Still, she needed someone that could actually fight, which brought her to her first case. Tracking down the Winter Soldier, a.k.a. James Buchanan “Bucky” Barnes, and rehabilitating him. Not easy for someone with a mental diagnosis that, while it gave her an I.Q. high enough to put her on S.H.I.E.L.D’s list of ‘Gifted’ individuals, also placed her on the, admittedly mild end, of the Autism spectrum. Still, she had to try.

It wasn’t hard to piece together the puzzle pieces. Little known fact, if you live in an American city you’re likely caught on camera roughly 15 times per day-assuming you leave your apartment. The last place Barnes had been seen was Washington D.C., the nation’s capital, which while it didn’t have as many cameras as Chicago or New York, had a lot of cameras. Katrina had to hack into all kinds of federal security networks without getting traced, but she had literally been doing that for a living before S.H.I.E.L.D went down. Hell, Natasha dropped by Katrina’s apartment and asked her to hack into a USB that turned out to be a mobile connection to an AI, which Katrina tracked down in roughly five minutes. Of course, Katrina had no idea that she was tracing a Hydra AI written based on the brain waves of Dr. Zola, but nobody did at that point.

Barnes had spent a lot of time at the Captain America exhibit at the Smithsonian, but that was the most logical place for him to start. She followed him out of the city and lost him entirely until she found security footage of him in New York City. He spent a few weeks there before leaving the country altogether. Katrina whom, while she didn’t actually have the mind of a normal person, deduced exactly what the amnesiac soldier was thinking. His memories brought him out of the country, specifically to the most prevalent memory on his mind-his supposed death. From there he would trace other memories of the war throughout Eastern Europe.

That was how she found him in Romania.

Katrina packed up her things and flew to Romania, spending the entire flight practicing what she was going to say. She wasn’t good with people and this man would take a fairly delicate touch-especially considering the fact that, assuming he remembered her, his memories of her would be attached to missions he was given by her father. He hadn’t been ordered to kill Katrina, but he had been ordered to kill in order to protect Katrina. She remembered it clearly, but she had an eidetic memory and he clearly didn’t.  
Most of the camera footage of him was placed around the block she was standing on. She looked around the streets at the buildings, and examined them closely. If she was in his shoes she would be most concerned with finding a place where people wouldn’t ask any questions, second would be the likelihood of being recognized by people that would report him, third would be an escape route. Keeping that criteria in mind she examined each of the nearby buildings as well as the buildings around them, the placements of the windows and doors, the front doors themselves (were the tenants’ names listed on the front, was the front door locked, etc.). It took a solid two and a half hours to observe all of the details, but less than five minutes to find the building, and the apartment.

Katrina got up from the park bench, tossed her ratty blue backpack over her shoulder, and pulled the hood of her oversized gray sweatshirt tighter over her head before heading into the apartment building. She climbed the stairs-as she expected there was no elevator, it was too much of a security risk. She counted, keeping a close track on what side of the building she was on, until she reached the apartment. Top floor, south side of the building with a window looking over the building next door, shorter and while a normal person couldn’t make the jump without injuries, the Winter Soldier certainly could.

Katrina stood at the door, not sure what to do. If she knocked he could have two reactions, he could open the door expecting a fight, he could open the door and drag her inside to demand who she was and why she was there, or he could flee-and she certainly couldn’t keep up with him. However, if she decided to pick the lock he could hear her and react in any of the previously mentioned ways, except if he pulled her into the apartment it would be far more violently, plus if she did get in before he noticed the second he did notice her there his reaction would be entirely based on his ‘fight or flight’ instinct, and based on what Steve had told her Bucky’s instincts were heavily weighted towards fight even before the second World War. Then there were the worst outcomes. What if he wasn’t home? If she picked the lock to get in and he wasn’t there, how would he react when he did get back? Would he come back just to catch her picking the lock? What if-

Katrina must have been standing there, staring at the doorknob, for an inordinate amount of time because when she was finally brought out of her busy brain by a man’s voice, rough from years of going unused for more than a few words at a time, speaking fluent Romanian, but Katrina understood him. Of course she did, when she was recruited into S.H.I.E.L.D’s Sci-Tech Academy at 15 she made it a point to learn as many languages as she could, as well as combat and weapons. She was painfully meticulous, so much so that she wished she wasn’t.

_“Miss? Can I help you?”_

He wasn’t speaking Russian or English, of course he wasn’t they were in Romania, but she recognized the voice. It was him, it was Barnes, and he wasn’t reacting in any of the ways she thought he might.

 _“Um…yeah…I’ve been looking for you…not to hunt you down or anything I just wanna help…I mean I kind of need your help too but…”_ Katrina sighed, she was such a fucking idiot. Why was she speaking in Romanian?  She didn't have to, she knew he would understand her perfectly fine in English and foreign languages were not her forte.  She could play parts, go undercover and get people to do what she wanted or needed them to do, but when it came to actual socializing she was a disaster. Maybe she could start over, it didn’t look like he recognized her, not really, so maybe she should start there. But…what if he remembered the name and remembered everything her father…this was a bad idea.

“Katrina Hazel Pierce…”

Oh dear god, he remembered her middle name…why the hell would he remember her middle name? Why in the fucking hell would he even _know_ her middle name? How much did her father tell him? Why would he tell him that much? This was when she realized she was working completely in the dark. Sure, she knew the Winter Soldier, but she knew absolutely nothing about Bucky. He was a complete unknown, especially after the last 70 years of his life. Katrina froze, what was she supposed to do?  Oh god, this was worse than calling for delivery before knowing exactly what she wanted.  She should have spent more time planning, she couldn't call Pizza Hut without practically rehearsing what she was going to say for a solid 15 minutes, which was exactly why the app was such a godsend and when she found out she could place an order from her favorite Chinese place online she thought she had died and gone to heaven.  What she wouldn't give to travel back in time and slap this entire notion out of her head so she could just take the job Tony had offered her so she could be paid to spend the entire day with AI's and computers.

Unbeknownst to her, Bucky remembered everything he had been told about her before being sent on the many missions that involved her protection. Most of them she didn’t know about, but the one she did know about...it was one of the only things he could remember clearly-

_Katrina, she must have only been 21, maybe 22, at the time. She had been sent to hostile territory in Maltese, a country that not only refused to recognize S.H.I.E.L.D’s authority but did so violently. Katrina had to go in and get any and all information she could on Ian Quinn, she didn’t know it but Hydra was looking to see if he could be recruited. Pierce had pulled the Winter Soldier out of cryo and didn’t bother to wipe him. They didn’t even bother to say those damn words; it wasn’t an assassination._

_Pierce handed him a file, entirely on Katrina, looked the Soldier in the eye and said one simple sentence, “You know the deal. If she dies, you die.”_

  
_The Soldier was very familiar with the deal; he had been sent out to protect the girl many times over the years. Of course she had been younger at the time, the last time he had acted as her protection she had only been 17. She was older now, a grown woman. Her light brown hair had grown long but she kept it up in a bun, she had grown into her big brown eyes and had learned how to apply makeup, not that she needed it. She looked…smart. She was smart, but she looked smart and most importantly, clever, with her pink lips pursed into a small smirk with her round face portraying a softness that he knew was there._

_She had fought off the Maltesian agents, but she wasn’t a field agent. She was cornered, she thought she was going to die, and then this…blur broke in through the window and absolutely demolished the agents. She sank down to the floor, her long hair a mess and her black wide-frame glasses framing her doe eyes which had grown wide. When it was over, she watched as her mysterious savior lowered his gun and slipped it back into the holster at his waist. He looked at her and, she couldn’t see the bottom half of his face, but those piercing blue eyes…she couldn’t look away._

_He couldn’t look away from her, the way her eyes would flit from his eyes to observe him and her surrounding then back up to his eyes as her brain put the puzzle pieces together. She knew he was the Winter Soldier, she had to, which meant she was probably figuring out why he was there and who he was after, why he hadn’t made a move against her yet._

_He heard more agents crashing into the lower level of what was once Katrina’s safe house and knew he didn’t have time to let her put the pieces together. He grabbed her, making sure to use his flesh arm to keep the blood on his metal arm from staining her blue blouse, and held her close as he crashed out the nearby window, making sure to take the brunt of the hit and the landing. He kept a tight grip on her wrist, pulling her along as he ran slow enough for her to keep up but fast enough that he could get her somewhere safe._

_There was a S.H.I.E.L.D base on an island off the coast, far enough to be on the other side of the Maltesian boarder, he just had to get her there. He snuck her all the way to the docks, he had been keeping an eye on her as she silently rode her boat into the Maltesian docks and made her way to the safe house. It must have been issued to her, meaning he could program it to return to the S.H.I.E.L.D base and knock her out, he couldn’t risk her turning the boat around. They stopped at the boat and before she could even get in he pressed on a pressure point on her neck that had her collapsing into his arms. He swooped her up into his arms to lay her down in the back seat of the boat, and he was right, a few buttons and the boat was on its way back to S.H.I.E.L.D, and he was jumping out and back onto the docks._

_He had to make sure she wasn’t followed. Pierce made it clear, Katrina’s survival was of the utmost importance._

Bucky snapped himself out of the flashback, though it was one of the only missions he didn’t regret. He noticed the way Katrina’s shoulders rose up and her head slumped defensively as she clasped her hands on the strap of her backpack and avoided eye-contact. He opened the door and gestured for her to walk inside, she just nodded before stepping inside.

“I need your help,” Katrina admitted in English, “My father…Alexander Pierce hurt a lot of people that didn’t deserve it, you included, and I need to help them but…”

“You can’t fight,” Bucky finished for her pulling his cap off and crossing his arms as he leaned back against the kitchen counter of the small apartment.

“I’m good at covering tracks, you can trust me, I’ve out-hacked Stark and JARVIS, even Fury doesn’t know I’m here-“

“I killed Fury,” Bucky remembered, every muscle in his body stiffening and his eyes shifting down.

“No, he’s still alive, just used a powerful dendrotoxin to fake death so he could use me and Hill to investigate Hydra without suspicion and reform…long story. Point is, he’s not dead,” Katrina rambled, “And Steve doesn’t even know I’ve been trying to track you down…course he’s been trying for months and I figured it out in a month but between him and Sam it’ll take them a year to figure out you left the country. I’m rambling, I’m sorry, I’ll stop that.”

  
Bucky couldn’t help the small, crooked smile that grew on his face. Katrina didn’t like people, didn’t really open up to them, didn’t trust them, it was all in her file but there she was rambling on without stopping. It was…nice, like she looked at him as a person and not the killer he had become.

“If you say no I’ll understand, I’ll help you find a new safe house and cover all your tracks I just…I had to try…”

“Just…keep it out of the states…for now. We’ll see where things go from there…” Bucky answered after a long sigh. It was a huge risk and he was an idiot for taking it, but something in him, something from way back in the 40’s, just couldn’t turn down Katrina when she looked up at him with those big brown doe eyes.


	2. Partners in...Crime?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Katrina and Bucky have gotten pretty used to living together, it wasn't that hard for them to be honest. It wasn't hard working together either. What was difficult, was when Katrina got calls from her friends in the middle of a mission.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like this took me forever. I'm taking summer classes and to top it off this story can be challenging to write somethings. I enjoy writing it but I end up spending a lot of time going back, deleting everything, rewriting everything, then going back and deleting everything again.
> 
> It doesn't help that when it comes to naming chapters I can never come up with a good name.

# Chapter Two

### Partners in...Crime?

Living with Katrina was fairly easy, at least it was for Bucky. He wasn’t one for talking anymore, and Katrina could go days without saying a word but the penthouse apartment in London was never silent, something Bucky appreciated. Katrina always had music playing or something on the television as she worked over her programs and the massive investigation into Alexander Pierce’s victims. On top of that she hated leaving home, which made keeping her safe a _lot_ easier. In all honesty the transition was mind-blowingly easy for Bucky.

It was a little harder for Katrina. Sometimes she would be so focused on her work, even when she was away from her home-office, that she completely forgot there was another being in the apartment. She would become so obsessed with her work she would forget to sleep until she fell asleep in her office, wake up in her bed and automatically assume she just walked there in her sleep. Then, to top it off, she would be so mentally dead when she woke up she would walk around dressed like she really was the only one in the penthouse-only wearing an oversized shirt or hoodie and a pair of, what she liked to call ‘girl’s briefs.’ In reality they were, and would forever be, what the rest of the world called ‘booty shorts.’ She would be conscious enough to focus on the investigation that had become her obsession, she would always be awake enough for that, but it would be hours before she was conscious enough to notice the tall, metal-armed, wall of muscle living with her. It was even more embarrassing considering she did all the laundry-she had a system and Bucky wasn’t going to screw it up.

They kept their distance from the Avengers, but that didn’t mean that S.H.I.E.L.D wouldn’t call on occasion. Tony had been friends with Katrina for years, looked after her like a little sister, and would call weekly just to check up on her. Steve would call once in a while just to talk or ask how to work something. Most days it was just to talk, he was a fairly quick learner and had figured out most everything, but there were some things that he just couldn’t get. After helping refugee’s escape one of Hydra’s many labs, and Bucky burned said lab to the ground despite Katrina screaming at him through the earbud in his ear not to do it, Katrina got a very interesting video call.

“Hey Fitz, what’s up?” Katrina answered casually, it had always been easy to be casual with Fitz and Simmons. Fitz was just as weird and awkward as her and Jemma had always been accepting and patient. Since S.H.I.E.L.D fell and Fitz and Simmons had been captured in a pod at the bottom of the ocean, Fitz had suffered brain damage and Simmons’ absence had only made things worse. Now that she was back things were simply…awkward…

“We’ve been looking over the remains of a Hydra lab, it was burnt to the ground, and Simmons wanted me to tell you what I found…”

“That means you’re talking, that’s good…right?” Katrina had to ask to make sure. The way Fitz paused to think it over meant he didn’t really know either. That figured, without Jemma to walk them through it the two geniuses were completely lost. Being the smartest students in Sci-Tech since it was started came with a price, and social skills seemed to be it.

“I…I don’t know…I…Everything I’ve been…everything I had to…I don’t know…”

Katrina had read the files, Fitz’s motor skills had diminished, he had hallucinations, and as a result became even more of a recluse. Between Mac and Katrina, they had managed to get him back to work, which had helped him heal in the long run but had left scars on his relationship with Simmons. As a result, Katrina received a call from Fitz about once a week, which was a massive decrease from when he would call once a day, but last week he had called while Katrina and Bucky were in the middle of a mission. To say it had been a struggle talking with Fitz and making him think she was up to nothing but helping Tony upgrade Jarvis-something she had yet to get to-and guiding Bucky through the Hydra lab was difficult would be a massive understatement. It didn’t help that Bucky had been quite disgruntled when he found out. He played it cool, but Katrina was far too observant for her own good and had noticed the rougher tone Bucky had taken. He was mad.

“What would you do?” Fitz asked, an awkward question to answer for Katrina under normal circumstances. Add in the fact that she had a very attractive Super Soldier trained to be a deadly assassin whose first instinct when it came to her was to protect her and Katrina froze on the spot. She wasn’t going to lie, she was socially challenged not dead, Bucky was remarkably attractive-and remarkably fucked up. He could also be a remarkable ass, flashback to three mornings ago…

_“Give me my cereal!” Katrina snapped as she hopped and reached for the box of cereal Bucky was holding over his head. She stopped to glare at him, but with the way she pouted and those big brown eyes she just looked too adorable._

_“Let me have some,” Bucky teased._

_“No!” Katrina barked._

_“Why not?” Bucky was still grinning._

_“You haven’t even seen the movies! Now give it! I’m hungry!” Katrina returned to reaching for the box of Star Wars cereal her new roommate was holding out of reach, “Asshole!”_

_Bucky just threw his head back as he laughed._

“Well…I…um…I don’t…you see…I’m not exactly…” Katrina stuttered. Would she rather blow not only her cover but Bucky’s cover to bits? Or would she rather embarrass herself and subject herself to the soldier’s teasing before she had time to retaliate for him stealing her cereal?

Oh, she wasn’t letting him get away with stealing her cereal. Maybe regular Lucky Charms but Star Wars cereal? Fruity crisps with marshmallows in shapes from her all-time favorite movie series? She wouldn’t let Steve steal them and he had not only seen but enjoyed the movies enough to pre-order tickets to see The Force Awakens with Katrina. Of course, Steve wasn’t an asshole so she wouldn’t have the same problem with him.

But the point still stands.

She needed to get revenge on Bucky before she could risk giving him more ammunition against her, even if she was just setting the ticking time bomb. But…where did that leave Fitz? She had to help her friend, with the exception of Tony-whom Katrina had known forever-Fitz and Simmons were the oldest friends she had. She couldn’t not help them.

“Kat?” Fitz waved at her from the other side of the video-chat, “You still there?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, just…thinking…um…is just telling her too crazy of an idea?”

“Would you do that?” Fitz retorted.

“Good point,” Katrina sulked, “Well when I like somebody I just avoid him or if I can’t I just pretend I don’t have feelings for him. I mean, I burry everything else down, what’s something else?”

“…I don’t think that’s an option…she kind of already knows…”

“Oh, well, then I’d curl up in a ball in my bed and cry.”

_“Crying?”_ Bucky interjected over the com unit in Katrina’s ear, Fitz couldn’t hear him but Katrina could, and that was the problem, _“The guy’s been in love with Simmons since the beginning of time and all you’ve got for him is cry it off?”_

Yes, Katrina spilled the beans to Bucky.  To her defense he had been curious why she spent so much time talking to Fitz and or Simmons and why she always ended up throwing her hands up in the air and exclaiming ' _well I don't know!'_   Of course, when she sat down and began babbling on about how frustrating it was trying to help her friends Bucky had just been sitting on the couch reading the paper and had never asked, but he had been curious at one point.

“My father was a homicidal maniac, my oldest friend in the world is Tony Stark, and I grew up calling Fury Uncle Fury,” Katrina muttered loud enough for only Bucky to hear after she turned away from the video chat, “To top it off instead of asking Steve to help me save proverbial puppies from trees I asked an _asshole with a metal arm who steals my cereal_.”

_“…It was really good-“_

“I will reprogram your arm to kill you,” Katrina blurted out before she could stop herself. This was why she didn’t have friends.

There was a brief silence over the other end before she heard an astonished, _“You can do that?”_

“Uh…well…assuming there’s software in your arm which, considering it’s a cybernetic prosthetic there would have to be some type of software to read the information traveling from your brain to your arm and back, then-“

_“Yes or no, Bambi.”_ Bucky had grown used to the way Katrina would avoid giving solid ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answers by explaining the theory behind something. If he had an idea of what she was talking about he would sit and listen, unless he was being shot at. If he was being shot at-like now-or had no idea what she was talking about-also like now-he would cut her off and make sure he got her attention by calling her ‘Bambi.’ It had been a term guys used to call cute girls back in the 40’s but then there was that movie about the deer named Bambi and with those big brown eyes, Bucky just couldn’t resist, even if she hated the nickname.

“Theoretically, yes, I could do it…what was that explosion?”

_“Just a grenade some Hydra agents threw, I tossed it back at them, nothing to worry about. Think you could rig something so an EMP doesn’t short out my arm?”_

“Ehm…well…I guess…”

“Kat!” Fitz called from over the video chat, “Katrina”

“Huh?” Katrina whipped around to see her friend sitting there, waiting patiently, “Oh, sorry, the old man had a tech question and last time Steve asked Tony for help they ended up starting a fire.”

It wasn’t exactly a lie. Bucky was older than Steve, making him the old man, and last time Steve asked Tony for help they had started a fire. She just didn’t specify that the two events weren’t connected, or even about the same guys.

_“Hey, Bambi, not to interrupt your little chat but we’ve got a problem. A big explosive problem that I can’t disarm.”_

“I gotta’ go, the old man is having a stroke. See ya!” Katrina hung up before Fitz could get a word in edgewise. Phil was there, he’d help the rocket scientist figure out what to do. If worst came to worst, Agent May would help Fitz. Right now Katrina had a crisis to deal with.

Back at S.H.I.E.L.D, Fitz was looking over the results of his work looking over the remains of the old Hydra lab. Specifically, video footage and the last bit of information that was left on what could be salvaged of the servers.

The Winter Soldier had been at the lab, the same lab where all of Hydra’s research had been wiped out by a virus that Katrina had made by hand. Fitz knew what Phil would ask when he got the report, ‘could someone replicate it?’

The problem wasn’t the question; it was the _answer_. No, nobody could replicate it. It was too complex, too thorough of a virus, and to top it off Katrina had made the thing entirely from scratch-even some parts of basic binary coding had been put together by hand. There were preventative measures to make sure nobody could copy it-Stark had agreed to help her test it and simply his attempt to copy the virus shut down most of his brand new tower. Even Jarvis wasn’t left unaffected by the virus, he was speaking in gibberish for weeks.

For some reason, Katrina’s work was at the same lab that the Winter Soldier had been spotted in and that could cause trouble.

The Winter Soldier was, if you’ll recall, still a fugitive charged with dozens of assassinations over the past 50 years and if she was helping him...

Even S.H.I.E.L.D and the Avengers might not be able to help her.


	3. A Regular Match Made In Heaven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things had been going so well. Katrina and Bucky had grown comfortable living together and working together. Katrina even lets Bucky help her from time to time.
> 
> Then Ultron showed up and forced Katrina to ask something Bucky just wasn't comfortable with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been struggling with how to continue this. I knew where I wanted to go but it in the end I don't think it turned out too bad...I hope...

# Chapter Three

### A Regular Match Made In Heaven

Neither of them slept during the night. Katrina would stay up until the _morning_ working and Bucky just…the nightmares…

He heard the scream from Katrina’s ‘office,’ in truth it was a server room with a large monitor in the center where she did all of her work. Bucky sprinted down the hall and saw Katrina madly typing and if it wasn’t for Katrina’s panicked brown eyes and the scream she had just let out he would think all was normal.

“Bambi-“

“ _Not now_!” Katrina ordered, which was odd in itself. She let out a string of curses as she typed frantically. Bucky only caught a few, ‘ _I told the fucker not to do it,’ ‘I swear to god I’m gonna’ kill him,’ ‘Fucking twat turns on the overlord and expects things to go well,’_ and a very colorful, _‘I’m gonna’ feed Stark his own fucking face!’_

Bucky stayed in the doorway, ready to move to the side and stay out of the way until told otherwise. Katrina pointed to a workshop bench stacked full with odds and ends she used and Bucky walked over, waiting for Katrina to tell him what she wanted.

“ _The red drive_!” she ordered, “ _And the sea green cord!_ ”

He quickly grabbed what she wanted, thanking god Katrina had an inexplicable desire to keep every cord, flash drive, hard drive, and every other device a different color from the rest and all the others were kept in a box labeled ‘spare parts’. She found it a pain, and always cursed her ‘fucked up head’ every time she spent hours searching the internet for a color she _didn’t_ have, but it made helping her all that much easier. Katrina quickly grabbed the hard drive and cord from Bucky and plugged in the device before sending Bucky back for another one.

Katrina let out a string of curses and threats interrupted by angry cries and _growls_ as she continued to work. When all was said and done she had gone through _eight_ hard drives, _three_ of them literally sparked and smoked before she snatched it and threw it against the wall before ordering another one-which Bucky quickly supplied. He hadn’t the foggiest idea what was going on, other than someone had attacked Katrina’s network. When all was said and done, she unplugged everything in the server room, not just from the power but from the LAN, from other servers in the room, _everything._

It had taken four hours and left Katrina absolutely exhausted at eight in the morning. She gathered the hard drives and cords that were still functional and packed them away in her old aqua backpack. Bucky picked it up and slung it over his shoulder before pulling the small young woman out to the kitchen and forcing her to eat something and get something to drink.

“What happened?” he asked.

“Tony had this idea that we could create an AI that would do the Avengers’ job for them, and Bruce and I agreed that would be nice. It was just a theory, but he got his hands on _something_ in one of the Hydra bases I pointed them towards that made Ultron a reality. Ultron sent out a cyber-attack that almost destroyed Jarvis, almost ripped down my network, and he’s trying to get through the Nexus to reach every military weapon controlled through programs. The…the Nexus is the central hub for the internet, basically, every piece of information runs through there,” Katrina explained as she picked apart her sandwich to eat the cheese and roast beef inside, then to start on the lettuce and tomato, “I need you to sneak me into the Central Nexus server so I can keep that from happening.”

“And if I say no?” Bucky wasn’t exactly _comfortable_ with walking into the Lion’s Den.

“I do it myself,” Katrina answered simply as she continued to pick apart her sandwich and eat what she wanted.  Bucky didn't like going into the Lion's Den, but he liked Katrina going in alone even less.  She wasn't Tony Stark, she wasn't a government agent anymore, and she wasn't an Avenger.  The only way for her to get inside was to break in.

“And if you don't do it?” Bucky was honestly considering keeping Katrina in the penthouse apartment until it was safe.  She'd be angry, she'd call him names, she'd even say she hated him, but she would be safe and without her to protect...

Without her to protect he was a broken man who had killed and hurt countless people.

“Ultron sets off every weapon he can to destroy all life on the planet, starting with nuclear and moving down the grid.”

Bucky was leaning against the granite top island, standing across from where Katrina was sitting on a stool. He pushed himself off of the island and made his way to his room.

“I’ll get my gear. Grab everything you need and get ready to go.”

Katrina nodded, quickly eating the rest of what she wanted and chugging her water before grabbing her aqua backpack and running to her room. She knew the deal; she had worked in the field before. Keep things light and portable, dress in something easy to maneuver in. She put on her black yoga pants and black low-tops before putting on a black V-neck t-shirt and a black hoodie over her head. She grabbed her wrist computer-a project she had been working on for years but had never _actually_ used. It worked like the software Stark’s suit, she could hack into anything, access any bit of information, communicate around the globe, she didn’t even need an internet connection to do so, and she did it all from an interactive holographic screen that would pop up when she needed it or vocal orders-to which it only responded to her voice in a language she rarely spoke to anyone other than Bucky or Natasha- _Russian_. It could even translate through the microphone in the wrist computer and connect to an earbud she wore.

She quickly grabbed it and strapped it to her left wrist with the small, but sturdy, black leather straps before pulling her sleeve down to cover it. She had everything she needed, it was up to Bucky to get her inside now. She met him at the front door and, even though he was dressed in a worn pair of jeans, worn black boots, a gray t-shirt covered by a black long-sleeved shirt with a wider neck, and a gray hoodie Katrina knew he was armed. He had his own bag thrown haphazardly over one shoulder.

Getting out of the country and outside the Nexus building only took a matter of hours and was fairly easy. They had to get inside one of the most secure buildings in the world and into the most secure room in said building now. Bucky grabbed Katrina’s hand with his larger, gloved, hand and led her around to the side of the building. He was looking for something, and Katrina didn’t know what it was until he told her.

“That vent is your way in, you have access to the building’s blueprints?” Bucky asked, prepared to give Katrina the boost she would need to get into the vent. Katrina nodded,

“What about you?”

“I don’t think you really wanna’ climb to the roof to get in. Don’t worry, I’ll be right there,” he answered simply before boosting the small woman up and into the vent. Katrina curled into a small ball as she pulled up her sleeve and the main screen of her wrist computer popped up. A few taps and keystrokes pulled up the blueprints she needed to get her to the center of the top floor. It also notified her about the sensors she would have to trick and hack so they could get inside. She followed Bucky’s movements through the security cameras and unlocked doors as need be.

“ _I’m guessin’ you’re the one making my job easier, Bambi_ ,” Bucky teased as he snuck through the halls. He was right not to follow Katrina into the vent, he was far too big of a man to fit into the vents.

“Well, you couldn’t exactly do it yourself,” Katrina whispered as she crawled through the vents. Maybe she could have done it on her own, but she didn’t want to and she certainly didn’t want to take the risk of getting attacked without Bucky nearby. Besides, just stopping at the Nexus was far from the end. She found herself at the vent leading directly into the Central Server room and stopped.

“Now what?” she whispered.

_“Can you set off the fire alarm?”_

“Yeah, give me a second.”

A few taps and the fire alarm was blaring and the employees began to evacuate, even the ones in the Central Server room. Bucky caught the heavy metal door as it slammed shut, sure to use his metal hand for that, before sneaking in and shutting the door behind him. Katrina opened the vent and began to climb down before she felt two strong hands grab her small waist and place her firmly on the ground.

“It’s all up to you Bambi,” Bucky stepped aside and let Katrina rush through the room. She held the screen of her wrist computer open, scanning the servers until she found the ones she was looking for.

“Open that case, I can take it from there,” Katrina ordered as she set her backpack down and began pulling out her hard drives. Bucky just grabbed the side of the case door and gave it a tug to open it, ignoring the lock entirely. They didn’t have time to pick a lock and he didn’t even know how-though he expected Katrina probably did. It seemed like one of those things she would teach herself. Again, he stepped aside and stayed out of the way until Katrina had something for him to do. Once each and every hard drive was in its proper place, Katrina once again opened her wrist computer.

“Jarvis? You hear me?” Katrina asked as she continued to type and swipe away at the screen.

_“Yes…I…I’m unsure of what happened…”_ the British voice of the AI spoke through the earpiece in Katrina’s ear.

“A hostile AI program attacked you and almost wiped you out. I’m connecting you directly to the Nexus and giving you full access. We need you to keep Ultron away from everything you possibly can, weapons and government intelligence are top priority,” Katrina explained as she continued to work,

“Think you could erase any evidence Bucky and I were here too?” Katrina asked, already thinking about their way out and covering their tracks.

_“Of course. Thank you for saving me.”_

Katrina wasn't sure what to think, in the process of saving Jarvis she had changed the program from a highly advanced VI to a full-blown AI. That was a road they would have to cross when the world wasn’t in danger. For now, Jarvis was still her friend and he still had her trust.

“You’re good to go Jarvis, contact me if you need anything, we have to go.”

“Out the back door, they’ll assume we heard the fire alarm and we can clip away from there,” Bucky said as he led Katrina out of the building,

“What’s next?”

“You’re not gonna’ like it…”

“I’m pretty sure I’ll like it more than this plan.”

“We have to go to New York…”

Now it was Bucky’s turn to let out a string of curses.

“On the plus side, at least we know we work well together in the field,” Katrina shrugged, trying to lighten the mood.”

“Yeah, Bambi, cause that makes it better.”


End file.
